Top Election Updates: Six-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab joins BJP after quitting BJD
BJD founding member and six-time Cuttack Lok Sabha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab joined the BJP on Thursday, dealing a big blow to Odisha's ruling party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Mahtab, 67, joined the BJP in the presence of senior leaders at the party headquarters in New Delhi. Along with him, former BJD MP Sidhant Mohapatra and noted Santali language litterateur Damayanti Beshra, who was conferred the Padma Shri in 2020, also joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, party national vice president Baijayant Jay Panda, party's Odisha unit president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders.
After joining the BJP, Mahtab, son of former chief minister Harekrushna Mahtab, said he will now get the opportunity to work for the development and progress of Odisha. "Prime Minister Modi's 'shakti (strength)', Home Minister's 'vishwas (trust)' and (BJP chief) J P Nadda ji's 'Prerna (inspiration)' will help us move forward," he said.
BJP to contest 13 seats in Jharkhand, ally AJSU oneThe BJP has decided to contest 13 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, leaving the remaining seat (Giridih) for ally AJSU party.
"It has been decided that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will field its candidates in 13 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand and AJSU party on one parliamentary seat, Giridih, in the interest of the people of the state," BJP national secretary Arun Kumar Kumar said in a post on X.
The BJP and the AJSU party are "old and natural" allies in Jharkhand, he said, adding that this alliance will "strengthen" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve to make India a "developed, self-reliant and a capable country".
"By winning the elections in all 14 parliamentary constituencies of Jharkhand, the alliance candidates will achieve the target of securing 400-plus seats on June 4," Kumar added. Polling in Jharkhand will be held in four phases on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
Kharge, Sonia, Rahul Gandhi to release Cong manifesto in Jaipur on Apr 6
The Congress will release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls on April 6, party's Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said Thursday.
He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will release the party's manifesto at a public meeting in Jaipur. Randhawa was talking to reporters after the meeting regarding election strategy in the Congress' 'War Room'.
CPI(M) releases first list of 44 candidates for Lok Sabha polls
The CPI(M) on Thursday released its first list of 44 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The list, which was shared by the party on X, includes 15 candidates for Kerala, including sitting MP A M Arif from Alappuzha, former health minister K K Shailaja, and Rajya Sabha MP E Kareem.
The CPI(M) announced 17 names for West Bengal, including Md Salim from Murshidabad. The names had been announced earlier by the party's state unit. It named two candidates for Tamil Nadu -- sitting MP S Venkatesan from Madurai and R Sachidhanandham from Dindigul. The party also announced one candidate each for Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura.
Cong contests polls to gain power, BJP to serve: Uttarakhand CM
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday said the Congress fights elections only for the chair while the BJP wants power to serve people and ensure the benefits of development reach the last man.
The Congress is a family-centric party and it talks of just one family, while the BJP believes in and speaks about the politics of development. Addressing the second election meeting of Ajay Tamta, the BJP candidate from the Almora Lok Sabha seat, Dhami said that the Congress was opposed to the creation of Uttarakhand while Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee created it.
Talking about the major achievements of his government over the last two years, Dhami spoke of the passage of the legislation on the Uniform Civil Code and a strict law to punish rioters.
